Preachers and religious
writers often wonder if their messages are simply sermons to the wind. Without
a doubt many are. What makes an article or sermon have a constructive impact
upon an audience? Is it the quality of the message or the attitude of the
individual receiving it . . . or both?

by Kenneth Westby

“I might as
well be talking to a brick wall,” is a common comment from exasperated parents
after an encounter with their teenage kid. I’ve heard many preachers, teachers
and writers express similar frustrations believing their spiritual messages go
in one ear, and without slowing down to visit the grey matter, exit the other
ear. They wonder, is the audience dull, deaf, or just dumb?

Of course, the blame for fly-over sermons may need to be
equally shared with the preacher whose poor content and delivery make their
messages easily forgettable. Simply being able to talk louder than people can
snore isn’t the top talent required of a preacher. More on a minister’s
responsibility later.

I borrowed my article title from Thomas Jefferson’s words
in a letter of June, 26, 1822 to his close friend, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse.
Jefferson wrote;

I have received and read with
thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine.
Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the
wind. . . .[1]

Jefferson went on to wish his friend success in his
efforts, but warned that people don’t always heed advice given in their best
interests. You might as well be speaking into the wind as to attempt to change a
mind already set. I know that has often been the case with good advice I’ve
ignored. How about you?

The Made-Up Mind

Nothing is easier than
self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. –Demonsthenes,
Greek statesman, 384-322 B.C.

“Believing what we wish to be true” is a human flaw as
common as rain in Seattle and we see examples every day; Politicians,
commentators, scientists, preachers all spinning facts or cherry-picking facts
to “prove” what they want to be true. It should be evident to all—but
isn’t—that there is a slant to the news both in how it is reported and in what
is selected or omitted for reporting. We all operate—including enlightened
believers—with assumptions and preconceptions that govern our world view and
how we process information.

The truthfulness of our preconceptions, however, will
govern our ability to learn and apply truth to our lives. If we have erroneous
assumptions in biblical and spiritual matters our ability to grow in grace and
knowledge will be compromised. Our ability to be objective with the Scriptures
will suffer. Faulty assumptions can skew beliefs, doctrines, mix truth with
error and detour our Christian walk. One need only look to the seven churches
described in the book of Revelation to see how commonly Christians can be
detoured into dangerous error. Only one out of seven wasn’t singled out for
rebuke by Christ.

The audiences of Jesus all heard the same words, but
processed them differently. He used the parable of the sower to illustrate just
how differently people receive the Gospel, the Word. To some Jesus was giving a
sermon to the wind. Can you think back to a time when you heard profound truth
but paid no attention, or didn’t perceive its value, or didn’t even recognize it
as truth? I can. Do we continue to make that mistake?

Jesus said God’s Word is ultimate truth.[2]
When he told Pilate, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me,” Pilate asked
rhetorically, “What is truth?”[3]
Pilate didn’t really want to know the answer to his own question. Those of us on
the side of truth need to listen to Jesus and heed the Word of God. But we
should ask Pilate’s question of ourselves: What is truth?

When we read an article like this or listen to a sermon in
church or on tape or on TV are we equipped to spot and receive the truth of it?
Or are they simply sermons to the wind? What is that critical ability to discern
truth from error, diamonds from cut glass? Wisdom is certainly a requirement
and a brief description of wisdom is the ability to discern or judge what is
true, right, or lasting; insight, common sense; good judgment. Ultimate wisdom
is the mind of God, and for man, the beginning of wisdom is the fear or
reverential awe of God. Wisdom is not subjective, narrow, prejudiced, but
combines understanding, knowledge, experience and righteous judgment into an
integrated savvy of people and things. Wisdom is such a valuable gift we are
invited by God to ask him for it and then passionately pursue after it.

It isn’t wise to maintain a closed mind. We are told to
guard the door to our mind, but not nail it shut. Unfortunately, a lot of
Christian folk sit on their favorite pew each week already knowing everything
and having their trusty, well-marked Bible locked shut with preconceptions and
doctrines set in cement. Anything that is different from the “faith once
delivered” is suspect or given a deaf ear. The only expectation from the
preacher’s sermon is to interestingly repackage what the pew-sitter already
believes, entertain a little, titillate with some “new” slant, serve up a
portion of spiritual meat, and for desert, make it easy to stay awake.

Why don’t we question this “faith once delivered” concept.
Does it mean the doctrinal teaching we grew up with, or what we have
traditionally believed, or what our church teaches? Not necessarily. The Apostle
Jude (the Lord’s brother) exhorted Christians that they “should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). He
went on to immediately warn that false teachers and doctrines were already a
threat to what was the very first generation of Christians.

Did you and I receive our doctrine directly from the
Apostles of Christ? I think not. Jude’s audience received the unalloyed truth of
God first hand. They were soberly warned to hold it fast against all attempts to
corrupt it.

The problem for us, in many respects, is the opposite of
that of Jude’s audience. We have come up in a world of doctrine alloyed with
myriad errors—some so long-taught and believed that they can be easily assumed
to have come straight from the apostles. They didn’t. Yes, we have the Bible,
but unless it is properly interpreted it can be “spun” into a host of
disagreeing doctrines as the presence of hundreds of denominations attest.

Our job is to contend for the truth of Scripture which
requires us to ask serious questions of our beliefs, regardless of how long we
have held them. We need to ask basic questions of Scripture: What does it really
say (not what I assume it says or wish it says or my favorite teacher says it
says)? It is amazing how much can be learned simply by asking good questions.

Good Preaching

The purposes of a sermon (or an article) will vary. Some
will be to simply inform; to impart helpful and important information a
Christian can use to better understanding Scripture, for instance. Others are
appeals to change behaviors in directions the speaker deems more righteous and
harmonious to God’s will. Some are inspirational in purpose. Yet others may
attack perceived heresy, sinful practices, or cultural trends. Some are specific
to particular areas of spiritual growth and understanding. There are other types
of sermons, but probably the most common is simple expository preaching—taking a
particular biblical text, explaining its context and meaning, and drawing from
it a current or practical application.

Jesus, the prophets and apostles preached with an inductive
accent to involve their listeners and engage their minds. They challenged
people to think, question, and analyze. The inductive reasoning process differs
from the deductive in that it involves the listener in the process.

Deductive preaching starts with a declaration of intent and
proceeds to prove the validity of what the preacher says is already determined
to be true. Perhaps most sermons are of this genre. Inductive preaching, on the
other hand, lays out the evidence, the examples, the illustrations, and
postpones the declarations and assertions until the listeners have had a chance
to weigh the evidence, think through the implications and then come to the
conclusion with the preacher at the end of the sermon.[4]

Among the greatest teachers to use the inductive style were
Socrates and Aristotle. Characteristically, inductive teachers ask many
questions in the course of their presentation and reason from practical
particulars familiar to the audience to more general conclusions or principles.

Jesus is regarded as a master of the inductive teaching
approach—which is sometimes called “the reversible why”—which gives
listeners a part in the sermon process. Inductive learning is more easily
internalized since one has stepped through the reasoning process for ones’ self
as opposed to passive acceptance of the preacher’s predetermined conclusions.
Does this make sense?

Some sermons (and articles) are duds—poorly prepared and
poorly given. Some are partial duds—shallow on content, but entertaining. The
sermons we all want to hear are those rich in important information (preferably
new) and expertly delivered, entertaining, and not too long. As members of the
audience, we don’t want to work too hard to get something out of the message. We
want the preacher to make it easy to listen and learn.

There are some preachers and writers who have that special
communication gift that make their messages easy to receive. Some even have
something worthwhile to say. Every speaker has a responsibility to aid the
audience by making his message easy to receive. He can do that by mastering the
skills of his profession. He owes it to his audience—and to God before whom he
has willingly committed himself to be a servant of God’s people.

But most importantly the preacher must have something
truthful and important to say. We can get style and entertainment from a host of
fine novelists and movie stars, but what the world needs is the Wisdom of God
revealed by Jesus. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God summarizes Yahweh’s grand
plan for mankind and makes clear the way to participate in it. In an ideal
church/world we would have preachers expert in the Word of God and possessing
gifts of communication to make every listener attentive and responsive to the
message.

Alas, we have no ideal churches, no perfect preachers
preaching perfect doctrine with perfect style and delivery. Nor do we have
perfect consumers of sermons and articles. My purpose in this article has been
to assist us imperfect consumers of sermons and articles to get more value from
them; to develop an objective mindset to sift wheat from chaff; to be
sufficiently open-minded to be challenged to change behaviors, beliefs,
opinions, and correct erroneous understanding. That’s a big bite to take for an
article, but I’ll try not to choke.

Dull Ears

Preachers and writers have a responsibility to have
something worthwhile to say and the ability to say it effectively. But our
emphasis here is on why some good sermons and articles end up given to the wind.
Why they have no effect upon those if us reading or listening to them. Thomas
Jefferson said to his friend Dr. Waterhouse that the big abusers of tobacco and
booze would just tune out his message and leave him talking, as it were, to the
wind. Why is that so?

God gave Isaiah the difficult task of preaching to people
who would not listen.

Go and tell this people: Be ever
hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the
heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes….[5]

Jesus quoted this passage in his parable of the sower.[6]
Spiritual deafness and blindness are chronic problems not just for ancient
Israel or the unconverted world, but even among those of us who warm the pews
and subscribe to religious publications.

I’ve been in the pulpit for thousands of messages and in
the pews for even more. I know the syndrome from both ends. For almost 50 years
I’ve conducted counseling sessions beyond count. At times I’ve come close to
concluding that they were all a waste of time. Folks just ignored advice that
they agreed was right and biblical, walked out and continued in the troublesome
behaviors and attitudes that brought them in to begin with. Then, thank God,
from time to time I would be shocked and encouraged beyond measure with
heartening results of a marriage salvaged from the rocks, a bitter dispute
between brethren healed, or a plaguing sin faced and overcome. Not all my
efforts were to the wind.

I also looked in the mirror and saw my own reluctance to
change and realized that the battle for righteousness and biblical truth was
difficult and long. One cannot quit or give up on oneself or on others. The
human condition is common to us all and moving Godward in life is a continual
struggle against sin, apathy, error, and the entanglements of life.

But there isn’t going to be much growth into the image of
God if our ears are dull and our eyes dim. Our spiritual growth will be sluggish
or even worse, stagnant. What can we do to become keen of hearing and sharp of
eye?

The Objective and Open Mind

Plugged ears and patched eyes will cut us off from the Word
and Light God continually provides. All too frequently my wife JoAn and I will
drop a glass on the kitchen floor. Immediately out comes the broom and dust pan
to sweep up our mess. Being from Arkansas JoAn likes to be in her bare feet all
the time so it is very important to get up all the class. Clear glass is a
special problem because look as hard as you like, all the scattered slivers
don’t reveal themselves until later and I’m not talking about those we step on.
An hour or day later I come into the same room from another direction with light
coming from another angle and low and behold I see a shining speck of glass I
couldn’t previously spot.

Bible study is like that. A fresh approach, new light,
coming from a different angle will reveal new truth previously passed over. That
same objectivity can be brought to the reading of an article or listening to a
sermon. Too often we blind ourselves to the possibility of receiving new
spiritual insight, wisdom, truth…light. We judge the facts by what we want them
to mean. We lazily trudge down the set paths of “what we’ve always believed.”

One of the reasons for the success of detective programs
like Monk, CSI, Agatha Christie's Poirot mystery series, etc., is that these
detectives don’t come at the evidence with predetermined, traditional,
conventional approaches. They ask questions of the evidence and let it speak and
tell the story of what happened. Asking questions of Scripture is the best way
to learn what it has to tell us. Look at all the facts before coming to a
conclusion and by all means don’t come to the facts, the text, with a
predetermined conclusion.

A major reason for wrong doctrine or erroneously understood
doctrine is how respectfully the whole body of facts is considered. One church
teaches homosexuality is a sin and condemned by Scripture; another says
Scripture teaches no such thing—and if certain passages seem to condemn it they
are misunderstood or irrelevant. Two different approaches to the same body of
facts can yield two different conclusions.

The Six Blind Men of Indostan

Speaking of different conclusions from the same body of
facts, consider the story of six blind men’s encounter with an elephant as told
by the American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887).

It was six men of
Indostan

To learning much
inclined,

Who went to see
the Elephant

(Though all of
them were blind),

That each by
observation

Might satisfy his
mind

The first
approached the Elephant,

And happening to
fall

Against his broad
and sturdy side,

At once began to
bawl:

“God bless me!
But the Elephant

Is very like a
wall!”

The Second,
feeling of the tusk,

Cried, “Ho! What
have we here

So very round and
smooth and sharp?

To me ‘tis mighty
clear

This wonder of an
Elephant

Is very like a
spear!”

The Third
approached the animal,

And happening to
take

The squirming
trunk with his hands,

Thus boldly up
and spake:

“I see,” quoth
he, “the Elephant

Is very like a
snake!”

The Fourth
reached out an eager hand,

And felt about
the knee.

“What most this
wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain,”
quoth he;

“’Tis clear
enough the Elephant

Is very like a
tree!”

The Fifth, who
chanced to touch the ear,

Said: “E’en the
blindest man

Can tell what
this resembles most;

Deny the fact who
can

This marvel of an
Elephant

Is very like a
fan!”

The Sixth no
sooner had begun

About the beast
to grope,

Than, seizing on
the swinging tail

That fell within
his scope,

“I see,” quoth
he, “the Elephant

Is very like a
rope!”

And so these men
of Indostan

Disputed loud and
long,

Each in his own
opinion

Exceeding stiff
and strong,

Though each was
partly in the right,

And all were in
the wrong!

Moral:

So oft in
theologic wars,

The disputants, I
ween,

Rail on in utter
ignorance

Of what each
other mean,

And prate about
an Elephant

Not one of them
has seen!

The world is full of spiritually blind men from Indostan
arguing over what they only partly see. We have no excuse to grope in blindness
trying to discover the will of God. There is no excuse for us to be so dull of
truth that it becomes but a sermon to the wind.

Through the grace of God we can have our eyes opened to see
God’s truth in all its shining clarity and moral purity. God wants to give us
what we seek, but it takes effort on our part. Jesus said, “If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the
truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). We dare not let his words become to us
a sermon to the wind.

[This Article appeared in July/August 2006 issue of The
Sabbath Sentinel which is the publication of The Bible Sabbath Association.
Write for your free subscription to BSA, 3316 Alberta Drive, Gillette, WY 82718;
www.biblesabbath.org. ]

[1]
Taken from the book The Evolution of Christianity—Twelve Crises that
Shaped the Church, Marshall D. Johnson, Continuum International
Publishing Group, 2005, p 155. Jefferson was probably the most
religiously engaged of all American presidents writing extensively on
doctrinal matters and involving himself in the hot Christological
debates of the time. He wrote two books on Jesus: The Philosophy of
Jesus in 1804, but it has been lost, and The Life and Morals of
Jesus, sometimes called the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson was also
enraptured by the beauty of the Psalms. The rest of the letter I quoted
from above continued with an attack on the doctrine of the Trinity,
Athanasius (the driving force behind the adoption of the doctrine in the
fourth century), and John Calvin who perpetuated it into the Protestant
world. He accused them of “teaching a counter-religion.” Jefferson was a
unitarian stating in the same letter that “there is one only God, and He
all perfect.”